Ally’s Art House a dream come true for mother of nine

If a picture is worth a thousand words, Alexandria “Alex” Gore never needs to speak again.

Her art conveys speech, spirituality, love, longing, and an ocean of emotions through exquisite strokes made by paintbrushes, pastels, and graphite.

Without ever parting her mauve-colored lips, her paintings, drawings and mixed media tell stories that birth inspiration and admiration.

Gore’s art starts in her heart, and she has it on display in a big way at Ally’s Art House in Inlet Square Mall. It is her new business showcasing an old love that began in childhood.

“Art is a way of speaking out,” Gore, 59, said while sitting on a comfy couch in her studio. “It is self-expression. It is showing the world how I feel in the most pleasant way.’’

Her adoration for art is evident. Even a person without sight can sense the irrepressible joy Gore feels simply by discussing it.

Talk art and her eyes grow brighter, her smile gets wider, and girlish laughter escapes from her throat.

Love is the main theme in all of her work. There is not one sad piece in sight. Creations of her nine children, paintings of beloved places and famous faces, as well as her hopes for the unity of humanity as promoted by her Baha’i faith, are vividly manifested on canvas.

“With art, I am sharing myself and sharing something that I believe will uplift others and leave a platform for discussion and interaction,” Gore said.

Her romance with art started as a girl, at 9 or 10, when she made a portrait of her youngest sister. She took it to school, and her English teacher hung it up in their New York classroom, where it stayed for the entire school year.

Art always made her heart flutter, and in the beginning, it stayed her constant lover. She taught art to her little cousins, to kids at church, and was intimate with it at every turn.

Yet, a loving person, in this case Gore’s mom, told her being an artist wasn’t the wisest career choice.

Gore listened and studied fashion design at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Art, however, refused to lose its lover. So, it chased Gore down and courted her years later when death decided to befriend a beloved.

Her sister, JoAnne Baruti, was fighting breast cancer, and Gore went to visit her in Georgia. During that visit, she discovered her sister’s art supplies.

“She was trying to do art, and I wondered why,” Gore said. “Then, it occurred to me that she wanted to leave something behind.”

Baruti lost her war to breast cancer in the late 1990s, but her hard-fought battle inspired Gore to take back her cherished lover – art.

“If I feel emotionally down, I can bring myself up when I am creating art,” Gore said. “Art gives me energy. Art understands all people. If people can’t read or write, or speak another language, they can still get something from an artistic piece.”

Her six daughters (including twins) and three sons are often featured prominently in Gore’s work.

Although they are all grownups now, eyes will find them forever frozen in time via portraits and creative illustrations of them engaged in various activities.

In one painting, her daughters are moving and grooving to music unknown, shaking their hips in whatever directions the rhythms demand.

Emerson (31), Olivia (29), Chevon (28), Clarissa (27), Thomas (26), Russell (24), Marriam (21), Danielle (21) and Khadijih (18) are persistently their mom’s muses.

“One of my favorite painting is of my daughter, Clarissa,” Gore said. “I captured her in the rain, but I don’t really show it because it is not for sale.”

That fact has a drawback, and a pal asked her to ponder the choice of usually showcasing the children.

“My friend said, “You have to stop painting so many pictures of your kids because you won’t sell any of your stuff,” Gore said.

Even so, her children are the center of her world, and they, along with her husband, John E. Gore Jr., 67, have been her biggest supporters.

“This studio exudes a lot of love because it’s about family,” her husband said. “I’ve watched her work hard and arrive here. I watched her come through the stresses of raising a big family. Now, it is her time.”

Until recently, her studio was her Conway home, where she homeschooled every, single one of her children.

They think she is quite a formidable talent, although they sometimes find her methods curious.

“Her art is all over the place,” Marriam Gore said. “She has this piece and that piece and those pieces. Her art is definitely diverse. She creates whatever she is in the mood for.”

Her mom’s current mood is in form of a painting based on a picture her brother, Russell, took about four years ago. It is of Marriam, Danielle, and Khadijih on the beach. They are jumping way high, with their feet kissing air.

“Art is a way of speaking across time,” she said. “And as a mother of nine kids, that is important to me. Through art, my kids will always a part of me with them.”

Contact Johanna D. Wilson at JohannasCarolinaCharacters@gmail.com or to suggest subjects for an upcoming column.

This story was originally published March 21, 2016 at 1:00 AM with the headline "Ally’s Art House a dream come true for mother of nine."